7015-03. EIA Strengthening - RDB Rwanda

The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) and the Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) have established a memorandum of cooperation with the aim of building capacity to improve environmental impact assessment processes in Rwanda. The RDB has been mandated by REMA (the Rwanda Environment Management Authority and responsible for EIA and SEA policy and compliance) to implement the EIA procedure in Rwanda, specifically scoping and review. With growing investments and national policy towards Green Economy, EIA is becoming more and more important. RDB aims to build its capacity looking especially for improving its scoping and review expertise and processes.

Significant details

The Memorandum of Cooperation was signed in May 2015. Joint analysis of needs during a planning workshop in July 2015 has resulted in a cooperation programme of two years, giving priority to improving EIA processes in key sectors, improving professional exchange and learning, and advice on specific, complex EIAs for which expertise is not available in RDB or Rwanda.

The MoU expired in June 2017 and the RDB has indicated an interest to continue. The first MoU had yielded guidance on scoping and ESIA for the sector of waste water management and RDB would like to extent this guidance to other sectors. A thorough institutional analysis has been conducted, giving enough basis for follow-up institutional strengthening. The NCEA remains open to a follow-up request.